Building Better Grammar

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The Building Better series evolved with developmental students in mind; however, the textbooks are designed to be inexpensive and flexible enough that all college students or writing instructors can use them as a quick reference guide.

Preface

p. viii

Subjects, Verbs, and Subject-Verb Agreement

The First Building Block Subjects

p. 2

Nouns

p. 3

Singular and Plural Nouns

p. 4

Types of Nouns

p. 4

Pronouns

p. 8

Subject Pronouns

p. 8

Indefinite Pronouns

p. 10

Identifying the Subject

p. 11

Simple and Compound Subjects

p. 12

Recognizing Subjects in Tricky Situations

p. 14

Subjects in Imperative Sentences

p. 15

Subjects as Distinct from Prepositional Phrases

p. 16

Subjects in Declarative Sentences with Here and There

p. 18

Subjects in Interrogative Sentences

p. 19

Sentences with Gerunds and Infinitives as Subjects

p. 20

Infinitives

p. 20

Chapter One Skills Review: Subjects

p. 25

The Second Building Block Verbs

p. 26

Action and Being Verbs

p. 26

Simple and Compound Verbs

p. 28

Verb Tenses

p. 29

The Simple Tense

p. 30

Simple Present

p. 30

Simple Past

p. 32

Simple Future

p. 33

The Perfect Tense

p. 34

Present Perfect

p. 35

Past Perfect

p. 35

Future Perfect

p. 36

The Progressive Tense

p. 37

Present Progressive

p. 38

Past Progressive

p. 38

Future Progressive

p. 38

The Perfect Progressive Tense

p. 40

Present Perfect Progressive

p. 40

Past Perfect Progressive

p. 40

Future Perfect Progressive

p. 40

Regular and Irregular Verbs

p. 44

Regular Verbs

p. 45

Tricky Situations with Regular Verbs

p. 45

Irregular Verbs

p. 47

Tricky Situations with Irregular Verbs

p. 50

Verb Tense Consistency

p. 53

Active and Passive Voice

p. 56

Chapter Two Skills Review: Verbs

p. 59

The Third Building Block Subject-Verb Agreement

p. 61

Subject-Verb Agreement

p. 61

Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement

p. 62

Singular Subject Rules

p. 63

Plural Subject Rules

p. 65

Subject Agreement and Regular and Irregular Verbs

p. 66

Tricky Situations in Subject-Verb Agreement

p. 69

Sentences That Start with Prepositional Phrases

p. 69

Sentence Starting with Here, There, What, Where, and Why

p. 70

Sentences with Either/or, Neither/nor, and Or

p. 72

Sentences with Interrupters

p. 73

Chapter Three Skills Review: Subject-Verb Agreement

p. 78

Pronouns

The Fourth Building Block Pronouns

p. 82

Pronoun Usage

p. 82

Subjective Case

p. 83

Objective Case

p. 86

Possessive Case

p. 88

Other Pronouns

p. 89

Who vs. Whom

p. 89

Demonstrative Pronouns

p. 90

Relative Pronouns

p. 92

Interrogative Pronouns

p. 93

Reflexive Pronouns

p. 94

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

p. 95

Pronoun Agreement with Person

p. 96

Pronoun Agreement with Number

p. 97

Tricky Situations with Pronouns and Numbers

p. 98

Pronoun Agreement with Gender

p. 101

Chapter Four Skills Review: Pronouns

p. 106

Clauses and Kinds of Sentences

The Fifth Building Block Clauses

p. 110

Clauses

p. 110

Types of Clauses

p. 112

Independent Clause: A Clause That Makes Sense on Its Own

p. 112

Dependent Clause: A Clause That Requires More Information to Make Complete Sense

p. 113

Chapter Five Skills Review: Clauses

p. 119

The Sixth Building Block Kinds of Sentences

p. 120

Simple Sentences

p. 120

Sentence Variety

p. 122

Joining Independent Clauses: Compound Sentences

p. 123

Coordinating Conjunctions

p. 123

Adverbial Conjunctions

p. 126

Semicolons

p. 129

Joining an Independent Clause with a Dependent Clause: Complex Sentences